Building the Chelsea Street Bridge - Sheave Lift

J.F. White Contracting Co. out of Framingham, MA is the lead contractor on the $125-million Chelsea Street Bridge replacement project in East Boston, MA.
The 450 feet span vertical lift bridge will have a clearance of 175 feet when complete.

This video showcases the exacting communication that occurs between the crane operator and the project supervisor directing the men and women, from three separate teams to complete a common goal.
This process would not be possible without their implicit trust in each other. Listen in as Joe Keaney of the Lydon Company directs Donny Caisse of Hallamore Cranes to lift and place a 132-ton sheave wheel from ground level to 22 stories above the Chelsea River and into a cradle with less than 1/100ths of an inch clearance. Safely and securely.

The two 200 foot towers on opposite shores were completed in mid-summer of 2010. Production of installing the equipment and construction of the machine rooms for both towers have been with Lydon Millwright Services.

Working with Hallamore's 800-ton Demag CC2800 crawler crane the second of four 18-foot diameter 265,000 pound sheaves were lifted into position atop the South tower of the Chelsea Street Bridge on December 18th, 2010.

Remote Mounted Wide-Angle Cameras: GoPro 1080p HD Hero
Handheld Cameras: Canon 1280p HD
TimeLapse Camera: Canon 1dMark2 with 40mm TS

Camera and Edit: Stephen SetteDucati
Edited in CS5, QuicktimePro, iMovieHD

Musical Score: brokenkites - 'As Birds to the Sky'

Special Thanks to:
MassDOT
The City of Boston
Local Operating Engineers
Lydon Millwright Services
Hallamore Crane
Timken Bearings